Genesis 27. Isaac Blesses Jacob

Isaac Blesses Jacob

When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.”  ² He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 

• Isaac would have been about 137 at this point, but he doesn’t die until about 180 years old.

 ³ Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, ⁴ and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”

• Was God’s word to Rebekah in Genesis 25:23 enough to justify Isaac giving Jacob the firstborn inheritance? “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
  the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
  • Maybe Isaac thought it meant that Jacob would be more prosperous.

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ⁷ ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ ⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. ⁹ Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰ And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” ¹¹ But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. ¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” ¹³ His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”

• Was this misdirected faith on Rebekah’s part? She had such confidence that Jacob would rule over Esau and that there would be no curse?

¹⁴ So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶ And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

• What would have happened if they didn’t deceive Isaac? Could they have trusted God to provide? Would Jacob still be elevated?

¹⁸ So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” ¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” ²⁰ But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.”

• That is a pretty intense lie, using God’s provision as deception.

 ²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²² So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 

• It’s hard to believe that voice alone wouldn’t be a dealbreaker. Who wouldn’t recognize their own son’s voice?

²³ And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. ²⁴ He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” ²⁵ Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.

• Did Isaac know he was supposed to bless Jacob first because of Rebekah’s conversation with God? So did he knowingly disobey God (even though it worked out to be Jacob receiving the blessing).

²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said,

• Interesting to see the senses Isaac relied on outside of his eyes
  • Hearing: Voice of Jacob (aroused suspicion).
  • Touch: Goat skins felt like Esau.
  • Tast: The seasoned meat tasted like game.
  • Smell: Esau’s garments smelled like the open field.

“See, the smell of my son
    is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed!
²⁸ May God give you of the dew of heaven
    and of the fatness of the earth
    and plenty of grain and wine.
²⁹ Let peoples serve you,
    and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
    and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
    and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

• By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother”
  • Edom was subjugated by King David and Israel for generations (2 Samuel 8:14).
• “When you grow restless, you shall break his yoke”
  • Centuries later, Edom successfully revolted against King Jehoram of Judah (2 Kings 8:20–22).

³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ³¹ He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.” ³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” ³³ Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” ³⁴ As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” ³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? 

• In Hebrew, on of the meanings of  Jacob יַעֲקֹב (Ya’akov) means to deceive. 

For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” ³⁷ Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” ³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

• If Esau didn’t ask for the blessing could he have walked away and not received the ‘anti-blessing’?

³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:

“Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be,
    and away from the dew of heaven on high.
⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live,
    and you shall serve your brother;
but when you grow restless
    you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

• Does Isaac’s ‘blessing’ to Esau also serve as a prophecy? There are statements about the future – did that come from God? Otherwise why did Isaac basically curse Esau?

⁴¹ Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴² But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. ⁴³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran ⁴⁴ and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— ⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”

• Consequences of taking matters into their own hands: Rebekah and Jacob got what God promised, but not to say there was not fallout
  • Jacob had to flee for his life, spent 20 years being deceived by his uncle Laban (ironic)
  • Rebekah lost her favorite son forever; she died before Jacob returned.
  • Esau hated Jacob and caused a rift between two nations (Israel and Edom) for centuries.

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

• I wonder what Esau and his wife did that made life so miserable.
  • Abraham told his servant about Isaac
    “Do not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites… but go to my country and my kindred.” (Genesis 24)
  • And Isaac says same thing to Jacob in Genesis 28.
  • Perhaps idol worship? Or were these two women just especially annoying.